Activities, tasks and assignments Nomenclature is very varied, so that one teacher’s assignment is another’s activity, and where one uses units, another uses modules. The common features however, tend to be that students are to carry out some sequence or process to meet some objective or purpose. As stated a number of these will hopefully illustrate aspects like group or team work, cooperative or collaborative work and may involve research, analysis, evaluation and reasoned argument. It is the teacher who must determine what emphasis is made, and how this is communicated to the students. Often, this communication is fundamental and deserves more time. Useful combination with e.g. the use of questioning, pre-reading, peer review may help ensure that students are clear what is being attempted, how and why. Many activities or assignments will benefit from the teacher modelling approaches or clarifying criteria, but sometimes overlooked are the opportunities which exist for students to take on these roles, and e.g. for peer review to reveal the extent of their success at doing so. Assessment for learning might include comment on a blog, electronic voting on a presentation, or ticks on a self assessment criterion match grid. Presentations might include the use of video or the production of a podcast. Debates might follow considerable research, evaluation, critical analysis and lead to a rehearsed reasoned argument or the discussion of an argument map e.g.
Again, even when based on available resources, final use requires appropriate
planning and may “develop” beyond the original resource, even
to the point of it being worth re-sharing with the global education community.
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Educational
Global Climate Modelling (A-level/staff) – exercises and modelling
software Free Federal Resources foe Educational Excellence (activities, investigations) DFID sponsored searchable resource base with some free resources including activities and plans Carleton College – “Starting Point”- Longer Activities Teachers' Guide to High Quality Educational Materials on Climate Change and Global Warming (activities and lesson plans) Classroom Tools to Explore the Past, Present and Future of Climate Change (activities) |
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